Hi, we are in the process of planning the future version of SQL Server
Express and would like to solicit feedback from the community on the setup
and installation experience of SQL Server Express edition. So if you have a
few moments, please tell us what you think -- What do you like/dislike and
what improvements do you think should be made in this experience.

Thanks,

Rob Walters
Program Manager - SQL Server

Hi Rob,
As a developer I would love to see a non-installed version of SQL Express.
Something that I could include in my application setup that would only run
when my application runs. This is sometimes called a DLL only database or
Internal Database.

This would eliminate the need to install anything but my app on the client .
Increase the ability to move the application from one computer to the next
(just by copying)
Make it easier for me to develop application that can scale to MS SQL

I would image that the application start-up would be something like

User starts application then my application does
Shoes splash screen
Start internal SQL Express and waits for running status
Tests internal SQL Express to make sure it's ok
Continues with normal application functions


The installation side would be as simple as copy required DLL's into
application directory


Now this Internal SQL Express would only be accessible by my application ,
the file format would be compatible with MS SQL (MDF,LDF files) I would do
my database development using SQL Dev version and when happy copy the
MDF,LDF files to my application.

thanks for the opportunity to make a suggestion

kind regards
Greg O

"Rob Walters [MSFT]" <RobWaltersMSFT@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
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